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The Atlanta Highrise Boom!

Martinman

By Martinman
in Atlanta

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Andrea Burg

Andrea

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First, in downtown there is a rumor of an out of town developer planning a 56 story mixed use tower somewhere around the intersection of Peachtree and Ralph McGill.

That would be cool. I'd personally prefer to see 8 pedestrian-oriented midrise buildings with street level retail rather than one tower, but still a tower would be okay.

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macdaddy Unincorporated Area

macdaddy

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In my mind I'd like to see a variety of building heights. Enough midrise development to make the city more dense, with a pleasant street experience. But at the same time, I love the highrise towers mixed-in to the cityscape. I hope that downtown tower gets made. But which corner is it. There is a lowrise structure on the northwest corner of Peachtree and McGill, next to the Medical Arts Building. If that's the place, it'd be great to incorporate Medical Arts into the newer development.

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Lady Celeste Burg

Lady Celeste

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Update on the W

Starwood and Barry officially announced today the W. It will apparently have a heli-port on the roof (a first for Atlanta hotels). Construction on the tower will begin 1st Q 2007.

Thank you Atlrvr for that information. I was wondering when they were goign to start seeing that much of the work on the foundation is already there. Allen Plaza is tuning out to be such a delightful place. I hope that the powers that be place close attention to detail and retail. BTW, could you imagine having the entire top floor of the W as your home. You would never have to worry about something blocking your north and northeast facing views.

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Lady Celeste Burg

Lady Celeste

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I was visiting family earlier this week and drove by the site for 3630 Peachtree... These are the two towers I most want to see built (the renderings look fantastic), so I was really hoping to see something happening. Unfortunately, no activity.

Does anybody have any updates???

Expected construction commencement Fall 2006.

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Andrea Burg

Andrea

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Thanks Celeste. I had heard there was some local resistance to the design. Have you heard whether the original design stands (I certainly hope so) or if the developers are modifying in an attempt to appease the neighbors?

This project is in my neighborhood, and yes, there was a huge amount of heated discussion and debate between Pope & Land, the City, and the surrounding neighborhoods. However, that was resolved a couple of years ago. They've since brought in Duke Realty, Post and Novare as joint developers, and the project is ready to go.

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Andrea Burg

Andrea

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I was out running errands this morning and it's quite amazing to see how many highrise construction cranes are on the skyline. There are probably over a dozen in Buckhead, nearly that many in Midtown, plus several more downtown at Allen Plaza. And there are probably at least that many more projects about to get underway in the very near future. This city is really booming!!

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Andrea Burg

Andrea

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What exactly makes a midrise more pedestrian friendly than a highrise?

Well, they may not be per se. I personally find midrise buildings more "human" in scale and more inviting to be around, but I recognize opinions on that may differ.

When it comes to a place like Atlanta, however, I favor midrise buildings because we simply don't have a need to pack people into skyscrapers. We have enormous amounts of undeveloped and underdeveloped land inside the city limits. So to me it makes sense to spread things out a little.

Take one 50-story tower like BOA. It doesn't interact with the street and is positioned way back behind large lawns and rather forbidding driveways. It dominates one block, but leaves adjoining properties as unsightly parking lots.

I'd prefer to see six 8-story buildings, which would revitalize an entire district, all up pulled up to the sidewalk, with street front entrances and ground floor retail and restaurants. To me that comes much closer to creating an urban and pedestrian friendly environment. In the case of BOA, you've got only four sides presented to the street, none of which are inviting to pedestrians. In the six block design, you have over 16 street facades, all with easy access to the ground level businesses, as well as to the offices and/or residences above.

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teshadoh Burg

teshadoh

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Not to mention - except possibly Downtown, Atlanta is still very much car oriented. Despite transit & pedestrian options, people in our metro will drive if they can. So... the highrise condos are dumping huge levels of car traffic onto the street - especially since the condo developers are providing abundant parking space for their occupants.

Andrea, I agree - I've never liked the BOA tower primarily due to it's pathetic treatment of the street on all 3 sides.

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pksiv Whistle-Stop

pksiv

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Not to mention - except possibly Downtown, Atlanta is still very much car oriented. Despite transit & pedestrian options, people in our metro will drive if they can. So... the highrise condos are dumping huge levels of car traffic onto the street - especially since the condo developers are providing abundant parking space for their occupants.

Andrea, I agree - I've never liked the BOA tower primarily due to it's pathetic treatment of the street on all 3 sides.

I agree totally and I think that was one of the main focuses when the Midtown Alliance put together Blueprint midtown. Opening up the buildings so instead of having a cafe inside the lobby, things would be pushed out to the street instead more. You don't see any new buidlings going up without streetlevel retail.

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pksiv Whistle-Stop

pksiv

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What exactly makes a midrise more pedestrian friendly than a highrise?

Personally, I believe the opposite to be true. Many street-level retail business require a certain density before they would consider moving into an area such as P'tree between North & 10th street. In neighborhoods with lower density, you get retail that built for cars.

Few people are going to walk 10 blocks to a grocery store, but if you put all those people in 4 30 story buildings in the same area, they will certainly walk across the street to it.

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CityFan Crossroads

CityFan

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Not to mention - except possibly Downtown, Atlanta is still very much car oriented. Despite transit & pedestrian options, people in our metro will drive if they can. So... the highrise condos are dumping huge levels of car traffic onto the street - especially since the condo developers are providing abundant parking space for their occupants.

Andrea, I agree - I've never liked the BOA tower primarily due to it's pathetic treatment of the street on all 3 sides.

I totally agree with you that more cars can be seen on the streets due to infill of high rises. However the point we should be talked about is which comes first, public transportation or residential buildings. It's all about money. Building transportation infrastructure, such as light rails, costs billions of dollars. I think only when the area has needs for it, it'll be built. Not the other way around. Hope to see all new developments come at the same time.

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ryanmckibben Whistle-Stop

ryanmckibben

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Personally, I believe the opposite to be true. Many street-level retail business require a certain density before they would consider moving into an area such as P'tree between North & 10th street. In neighborhoods with lower density, you get retail that built for cars.

Few people are going to walk 10 blocks to a grocery store, but if you put all those people in 4 30 story buildings in the same area, they will certainly walk across the street to it.

The density levels of midrise residential buildings would be more then enough to support any type of urban retail as well as transit. Most transportation experts agree that 10 units per acre is the minimum to sucessfully run the least intense type of transit. Midrise buildings of 10-15 stories would more then cover that. The perfect example of that would be Boston or even DC. Not many "towers" in either city, but both have a thriving retail market and mass transit does quite well in both of those areas.

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Andrea Burg

Andrea

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Has anyone else heard the rumor that Cousins is about to pull the plug on their 'Premiere' project at the Fox Theater... Ironic, since the 615 building is being imploded tomorrow... we may be witnessing the creation of another vacant lot in Midtown...

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. That's what we do in Atlanta.

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